By Rebecca Miano
NAIROBI, Kenya, October 28 – In early August, scientists from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a report indicating that the world is already sure to face further climate disruptions for decades, if not centuries, to come. During the report’s launch, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres described the report as a “code red for humanity” signaling the need for rapid action on climate change and a strategic approach.
Guterres’ sentiments were perhaps the latest rallying call to spur the world into more aggressive action against climate change. According to United Nations Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, more than 130 countries have committed so far to keep global warming to no more than 1.5 °C in order to avoid the worst effects of climate change, as envisioned in the Paris Climate Change Agreement which came into force in November 2016.
The quest to stem the tide of global warming however begun in earnest in 1992 with the establishment of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) at the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit. The ultimate objective of the UNFCCC, which Kenya is a party to, was to achieve stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere to avoid their harmful effects on the environment.
In order to rally the world further in the cause to reduce greenhouse gas emission into the atmosphere, in 1994, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 16 September the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer, commemorating the date of the signing, in 1987, of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer.
Thereafter, against the backdrop of a growing pool of evidence of human influence on climate change and the irreversible nature of its impacts, the international community adopted the Kyoto Protocol of 1997.
The Kyoto Protocol was a significant milestone as it was the first international agreement in which developed nations signed up to quantified, compulsory reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, a clear signal that the world had finally reckoned with the growing dangers of climate change.
One of the significant aspects of the Kyoto Protocol is the establishment of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) – a flexible mechanism that allowed industrialized countries with emission-reduction targets to partly meet their commitments by buying Certified Emission Reductions (CERs), one tonne of CO2 equivalent (CO 2e ) each, from projects that reduced or avoided emissions in developing countries. The […]